Plate Nº 10 · recorded October 2, 2026
Health & Medicine ResearchReported finding
Global Life Expectancy Nears Pre-COVID Levels, WHO Reports
Life expectancy hit 73.3 years in 2023, near the 2019 level, the WHO says. But healthy life expectancy lags, and chronic diseases now drive 74% of global deaths.
By Nathan Brooks3 min read684 words
In brief
- Global life expectancy reached 73.3 years in 2023, close to the pre-pandemic 73.4 years recorded in 2019, after dropping to 71.5 in 2021.
- Healthy life expectancy stood at 62.8 years in 2023, still 0.4 years below its 2019 level.
- Noncommunicable diseases now cause 74% of global deaths, up from 58% in 2000; ischemic heart disease alone killed 9.5 million people in 2023.
Global life expectancy has nearly recovered to its pre-pandemic level, according to new figures released Friday by the World Health Organization. But the number of years people can expect to live in good health is recovering more slowly — and that gap is drawing attention from researchers.
The WHO's annual Global Health Estimates report puts global life expectancy at 73.3 years in 2023, just shy of the 73.4 years recorded in 2019, before COVID-19 swept across the world. The pandemic knocked the figure down to 71.5 years by 2021.
Healthy life expectancy — the average number of years a person can expect to live without significant illness or disability — stood at 62.8 years in 2023, still 0.4 years below its 2019 level. In plain terms, people are living about as long as they did before the pandemic, but more of those years involve poor health than before.
"Living longer is one of the great achievements of public health," said Alain Labrique, head of the WHO's data department. "The next challenge is to ensure that those additional years are lived in good health, while health systems adapt to respond to the changing needs of populations."
The report also highlights some worrying long-term trends. Deaths from dementia have tripled since the COVID-19 pandemic began, and health loss linked to anxiety and depression has risen sharply over the same period. These figures describe associations over time rather than proven causes, and the WHO's estimates carry inherent uncertainty, since many countries lack complete death-registration data.
The regional picture varies widely. Between 2000 and 2023, the WHO Americas region recorded the largest increases in mortality risk and healthy life loss, while the Western Pacific region saw substantial declines in both measures.
What is killing the world
Of the 61 million deaths worldwide in 2023, the 10 leading causes accounted for 33 million. Eight of those 10 causes were noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) — chronic conditions such as heart disease and diabetes that develop slowly and are not passed from person to person. NCDs now cause 74% of global deaths, up sharply from 58% in 2000, when the Global Health Estimates study began.
The world's biggest killer remains ischemic heart disease, a condition in which the heart muscle receives too little blood, usually due to narrowed arteries. It was responsible for 16% of all deaths in 2023 and saw the largest increase of any cause between 2000 and 2023, rising from 3.0 million deaths to 9.5 million.
Stroke ranked second, causing roughly 11% of deaths, followed by chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a progressive lung condition that makes breathing difficult, at about 6%. Lower respiratory infections — including pneumonia — took fourth place, making them the deadliest communicable disease worldwide.
Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia came fifth in 2023, killing 2.1 million people.
COVID-19 fades from the top tier
For the first time since the pandemic began, COVID-19 dropped out of the top 10 leading causes of death. The disease was directly responsible for an estimated 5.3 million deaths in 2020 (third place) and 9.4 million in 2021 (first place). By 2023, deaths directly attributable to COVID-19 had fallen to 900,000, placing it 14th.
HIV and AIDS show an even longer arc of decline. Deaths from the disease have fallen by 62% since 2000, moving from the world's seventh leading cause of death that year to 22nd place in 2023.
The challenge ahead
The overall trend is clear: infectious diseases, while still deadly in many regions, are giving way to chronic conditions as the dominant threat to human health. That shift has major implications for how countries design their health systems, which must increasingly manage long-term care for aging populations rather than acute infections.
The WHO's estimates suggest the immediate mortality shock of the pandemic has largely passed. Whether healthy life expectancy catches up with overall life expectancy — and how quickly — remains an open question, and one the agency will track in future editions of the report.
via Medical Xpress (Source)
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